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Amen. All right, Exodus chapter 30, the Bible reads in verse number 1, Thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon, of shittim wood shalt thou make it. A cubit shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof. Four score shall it be, and two cubits shall be the height thereof. The horns thereof shall be of the same. So we're still continuing on with some of the furniture of the tabernacle. We kind of took a break from that in the last few chapters where we had the high priest's garments, and then the consecration of the high priest, and the anointing oil upon them. In this chapter, the focus is on the incense altar. It kind of starts and ends the chapter talking about the incense altar, and then in the middle it talks about this money that they're supposed to pay unto the Lord, probably on a yearly basis. It doesn't give that frequency, but it just talks about when they number the people that they're going to take this tax or pay this amount of money. So let's get into this. First of all, when we talk about the incense altar, one of the things that this represents is prayer because if you remember in the book of Revelation, it talks about how there's incense and fire placed upon the altar. This is in Revelation chapter number 8, the seventh seal is open, and it talks about how the incense upon the altar in heaven is basically the prayers of the saints coming up as a sweet saver before the Lord, and that is what this represents. A lot of these things, of course, are, all of them really, are very symbolic when we read this. Now as I was saying in the last few weeks, whenever we're looking at the symbolism here, we never want to take the parable too far or take the symbolism too far and start drawing conclusions that don't match the rest of scripture. We should always base what we believe on clear scriptures, right? Clear statements of scripture. We shouldn't base a doctrine primarily on symbolism. Symbolism is good to enhance what we believe or back up or confirm what we believe, or just to help us have a greater appreciation for what we believe or just to add beauty to what we believe, but we don't want to just, you know, run with a parable and get some kind of crazy interpretation. So let me give you an example of this with the financial giving. Look at verse number 11. It says, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, so basically you're doing a census, you're counting the people, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord. When thou number'st them, that there be no plague among them. When thou number'st them. This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary, a shekel is twenty geras, and half shekel shall be the offering of the Lord. Everyone that passeth among them that are numbered from twenty years old above shall give an offering unto the Lord. The rich shall not give more, the poor shall not give less than half a shekel when they give an offering unto the Lord to make an atonement for your souls. And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord. And look at this phrase that we've already seen a few times, but here it comes up again, to make an atonement for your souls. So you see how if you wanted to twist scripture, you could approach this scripture and come up with some pretty bad doctrine, if you took this symbolism the wrong way, and said, hey, you got to buy your way into heaven, you know, you want to make an atonement for your soul, you want your sins to be forgiven, well, that's going to cost you a half a shekel, buddy. That's not what the Bible is teaching here. So we want to make sure that when we're studying scripture, and we're looking for the symbolic meanings, we need to make sure that whatever symbolic meaning we draw from it, it is compatible with the rest of scripture. And if it's not compatible, then you're wrong, you're interpreting it wrong. Now there could be lots of different possible right answers here, because the Bible's very deep and has layers and layers of meaning. So you could hear one sermon on Exodus 28, or Exodus 29, or Exodus 30, giving you a bunch of symbolism, and then hear another sermon that teaches everything completely different, and they could both be right, because there's so much meaning that's there. But if our interpretation contradicts clear scripture, then at that point, it needs to be rejected out of hand. Okay. Now, obviously, we don't buy our way into heaven, we don't pay our way into heaven. So to walk away, well, you know, you got to make an atonement for your soul, you got to pony up, and you got to pay for this. That's ridiculous. The Bible says the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Bible says that we are not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. So we know that that's not what this is saying. But there are some things that we could apply about salvation here from this parable or from this symbol. And when I use the word parable or symbol or allegory, I'm not saying that these things didn't literally happen, because they did literally happen. All of these things literally happen, but they also have symbolic meaning. And so here are some symbolic things that you could take away from this. Number one, you could take away the fact that, you know, because every single person had to pay this amount, it didn't matter if they're rich, poor, bond free, whatever their situation, everybody has to make the atonement for their souls, then you could take from that everybody's a sinner, everybody needs atonement, everybody needs forgiveness, everybody needs redemption. And then the fact that the rich don't pay more, the poor don't pay less, you could take from that the fact that it's the same price for all of us to get into heaven. There's not a different plan of salvation for different people, because the price is the same for everybody, the blood of Christ. You know, Jesus Christ, death, burial, and resurrection pays the way for us, and whether we're rich in good works or poor in good works, it's going to be Christ payment that gets us in. And so, you know, you could draw salvation parallels from this if you wanted, but you just want to make sure that you're not contradicting the teachings of Scripture and coming up with some kind of a weird doctrine based on something like this. Now, the primary application of this is a literal tax, if you will, that they're paying as Israelites. So, God has redeemed them out of the land of Egypt, they were in bondage, now they're free, and not only are they free, but they have this blessing of being God's chosen people. They're in this special nation, the royal priesthood, the kingdom of priests, they are God's special chosen people, and that's a great privilege. And so, one of the things that they have to do here is to pay a small tax. Now, it's a very small tax, okay? This is just a half shekel for each person. It's not a large amount of money, it's really just a tiny little token. So, it's not like they're paying some huge amount of money, it's very low. And notice that everybody pays the same. Now, the other thing that's going to come up later in God's law is, of course, the tithe, which is 10%. And what you'll notice about both of these, whether it's God's taxing them here, where they do the census and they all pay a half shekel, or whether it's the tithe, what you don't see is rich people having to pay more because they're rich, and poor people having to pay less because they're poor. Because in this case, you have like a flat tax of just everybody pays a half shekel, and then with 10%, okay, that's going to be different depending on how much money you make. So, a rich person, yeah, they're giving more money, but not as a percentage of their income. They're solely giving 10%. I mean, I've even heard of rich people saying, well, I make so much money, I can't afford to tithe, because I make so much money that my tithe would just be this incredible amount. Yeah, but that means your 90% is an incredible amount. Okay, so, you know, and then people who are really poor, they're like, I'm too poor to tithe. It's like, well, you make so little money, your tithe's not even a big deal, just throw it in the plate and get the blessings of God, get it over with, you know. So, the point is, it's the same for everybody. What we see in the United States of America today as a nation, we're being taxed on this graduated tax scale where rich people are paying a higher percentage and poor people are paying a lower percentage, and this is not the right way to do taxation. Let me see if I can put this down. Am I quiet again? This thing's just dying, huh? All right, you know what I'm going to do? I don't want to hold this, all right. I'm just going to crank, I'm going to crank this thing up, and then if there's a chance that it's going to get really loud again, and we're just going to blow this place out, but I don't want to hold that thing. All right, how's that right there? Is that good or is that too loud? All right, is that good right there? We good? All right, cool. Back to our regularly scheduled term in here. So, what we have today with this graduated income tax is basically a way to punish people for making more money, punish people for being productive. It doesn't work, and if you actually look at the communist manifesto by Karl Marx, one of his 10 planks is a heavy graduated tax scale, which is what we have today where we pay up to, I mean, I think the biggest tax bracket for federal taxes pays like what, what is it, 60 percent or 40 percent? I don't know because I don't make that much money. What, what is it? Yeah, so 40 percent is where corporate maxes out. I don't know, does anybody know for income? 40? Yeah, you, you well-heeled ones. But anyway, yeah, maxed out at like 40, and then on top of that, of course, you've got your FICA, which is another 15.3 percent. So, basically, people that are making a lot of money, they're, they're literally paying like a lot of taxes, you know, they could be paying like 50 percent of their income in taxes, let alone the fact that when they spend the money, they get taxed again on sales tax. It's like tax it on the way in, tax it on the way out, tax it every time it changes hands, and the problem with that is that it doesn't motivate people to want to work more and produce more because some people, you know, they're making a certain amount of money, and then maybe they could do more, maybe they could get a second job and work more, but then they stop and say, oh, wait a minute, you know, that's going to put me in a different bracket, and then I'm paying more money. Now, maybe in the U.S., it's not really that bad, but if you go to other countries, this can be crazy. Like, for example, in Germany, you get a second job in Germany, sometimes as much as like 90 percent of your second job is just going to taxes. So, basically, very few people in Germany work a second job, because it rarely makes any sense financially, because you're just pretty much just paying it all in taxes, and the problem with that is that sometimes you need to work a second job to get ahead in life. You know, there have been times in my life when I needed to work two jobs just to get a little bit of a boost financially, to get ahead a little bit, and, you know, I have 11 children, and different times when I was raising my family trying to make ends meet, I had to work two jobs, or I had to work 70, 80 hours a week or more in order to make ends meet at various points in my life. But, you know what, I thank God that I lived in America and had the opportunity to work those extra hours, and, yeah, I got taxed more, but at least I was still able to get ahead by working a lot of extra hours. But you go over to Germany and, basically, you're just rarely going to find anybody that's going to have eight, nine, ten kids. You know, they'll typically have like one or two children over there, and part of that is because it's difficult financially, and because their values are totally different, of course, but that's another sermon in and of itself. So we see that God doesn't buy into this graduated tax system. You know, when he had a tax for his people, it was very small, it was very nominal, and it was just a flat rate. It wasn't even a percentage here in this case. It was just a flat rate, just everybody gives, you know, 50 bucks, or everybody gives 20 bucks, whatever the amount would be of a half shekel. I didn't do the calculation on that, I don't know. But anyway, so half shekel, no big deal. Now, let's talk about the tithing, okay? So the tithing is 10%, and that's separate from this, okay? That's a different issue. Now, the thing about tithing is that tithing is something that transcends the Mosaic Law, okay? And what I mean by that is that it existed before the Mosaic Law, and it exists after the Mosaic Law. A lot of people will look at the subject of tithing, and they'll say, well, that's a law of Moses thing, you know, that's Old Testament, they'll say, that's Old Covenant. What you have to understand is that the Old Covenant was made with the children of Israel at Mount Sinai, right? When Moses, a few chapters ago, sprinkled the book, and he sprinkled the people, and he said, this is the blood of the Testament, which God has enjoined unto you, right? So let's get this understood here that when we talk about Old Testament, we could be talking about two different things. Number one, when people say Old Testament, sometimes they're just referring to 39 books of the Bible, and they call that the Old Testament, right? And then we talk about the 27 books, and we call them the New Testament, right? But when these words occur in Scripture, New Testament, Old Testament, or New Covenant, Old Covenant, they're not talking about those groups of books. That's something that we use today in America and all over the world to identify these two portions of the Bible, and I think they're good terms. They're not bad terms. I mean, I think it's a great term to refer to the first 39 books as the Old Testament and the 27 books as the New Testament, but when we see those terms in Scripture, they mean something different, and sometimes people could mix these things up. So what do the terms mean in Scripture, Old Testament? First of all, I want you to know that the terms Old Testament and Old Covenant are identical. There's no difference. Those are interchangeable. So there is no difference between the Old Testament and the Old Covenant. They're the same thing, just two different words, and the Bible will often just use two different words for the same thing just because the Bible has a big vocabulary. Now, the Old Covenant is something that was instituted at Mount Sinai with Moses and the children of Israel. Before that, they were not under the Old Covenant. So Abraham's not under the Old Covenant, Isaac, Jacob, right? Because the Old Covenant or the Old Testament is instituted at Mount Sinai with Moses. Everybody see what I'm saying there? Okay. So before that, it's not in force. When does the Old Covenant stop? It stops in the first century A.D. It stops a little bit less than 2,000 years ago. The Bible tells us clearly in Hebrews chapter 8 verse 13, it says, in that he saith a new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. So when the book of Hebrews was written, here's what God said. Here's what God's saying. The Old Covenant is about to vanish away. It's about to be just over. It's about to be done. Now, when did the New Covenant start? The New Covenant starts when Jesus died on the cross because the Bible says, a testament is a force only with the death of the testator. A testament is a force after men are dead. It is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. So the New Testament is with Christ's crucifixion. That's when it begins, the death of the testator. And that's why the night before when Jesus at the Last Supper, he says, this cup is a New Testament in my blood. You know, this do as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me. And so Jesus Christ instituted the New Covenant or the New Testament with his own blood. That's when it started. And of course, here we are. And it's an everlasting. It's not going to end. It's not going to be like, all right, the New Testament's over. Wrong. The New Testament is an everlasting covenant, an everlasting testament. Okay. So there's no third Book of Mormon testament or something. You know, basically there's just the Old Testament and the New Testament. Now, when did the Old Testament end? Now, there's a little bit of overlap between the Old Testament and the New Testament, right? Because in Hebrews, he said it's ready to vanish away. It's about to be gone. It's not quite totally gone. And the reason why there's a little bit of overlap is because obviously you have a lot of people who are saved under the Old Covenant. They're serving God under the Old Covenant. And then all of a sudden the New Covenant comes along. Well, obviously there's going to take some time for the New Covenant to get around. This is before TV, internet, newspapers. So communication was slower. And so the gospel had to spread in that first century so that everybody could hear about it. So think about this. What if you're a Jew in the first century A.D., right? And you're living in some far-flung part of the world because the Bible clearly tells us that the Jews were scattered into all nations. And they literally were scattered into all nations. And even the northern kingdom of Israel were literally scattered into all nations. So you have some people in some pretty far-flung places that are going to be still worshiping the Lord. And they know about Moses. And they have the Word of God. And they worship the Lord. They're devout in their worship of the Lord. But they're not going to necessarily hear about Jesus immediately. When Jesus dies on the cross, it's not like a week later they find out about that or something, right? So there's a little bit of an overlap. Also, the animal sacrifices continued to happen in the temple until 70 A.D., okay? Now, obviously, after Jesus Christ died on the cross, immediately there's no more need for an animal sacrifice. It's not legitimate to perform an animal sacrifice after it's totally done, it's over, Jesus once for all. And when Jesus died on the cross, the veil was rent. Just immediate. So it was immediate. It's like, Jesus died on the cross, immediately. It's like, we're on to the New Testament. Just be thankful this isn't one of those Pentecostal churches where they blame everything on the devil. The devil is affecting our sound system right now. All right, testing one, two. All right, see it got quiet again. At least it kind of happened as I was making a point, you know? So kind of enhanced that point, or actually just made me totally forget what that point even was. All right, how do I sound? Everybody hear me? Is this the right volume? All right, let's just, we're going to push through this thing, all right? Somebody help, what was I talking about? The veil was rent in twain, all right. So, you know, the veil was rent in twain, meaning, you know, right away, those that are in the know, obviously, yeah, they're getting right on board. I'm just going to move it. They're getting right on board with the new covenant right away, no more animal sacrifices, just everything's about the New Testament, we don't need to go there. But you can tell when the book of Hebrews is written that it's still going on, even though Christians aren't participating in it, because he talks about the bodies of those beasts which are brought into the sanctuary, and he's talking about it as if it's happening still. So basically, the book of Hebrews is written before 70 AD, is what I'm saying, right? The book of Hebrews is authored before 70 AD, that stuff's still going on, and it makes sense that basically, you know, 37 years from 33 AD, approximately, when Christ died on the cross, to 70 AD, you know, that almost 40-year period, basically gives time for the gospel to get around the world, for everybody to hear about it, for the people who are sort of grandfathered in under the old covenant, you know, they're kind of dying off, and the new generation's coming up under the new covenant, and so there's a crossover, is what I'm saying. So I'm not saying for sure that, you know, 70 AD is the official end of the old covenant, but I would say around that time for sure is the end of the old covenant. All we know for sure is we know for sure that the old covenant starts with Moses, and it ends sometime in the first century AD, because Hebrews is saying it's about to vanish away, and we know it's for sure gone now, okay? And then the other thing we know for sure is that the New Testament starts with the crucifixion of Christ and goes all the way into eternity, okay? So there's some kind of crossover. We don't need to fully understand that in 2020, because it's not relevant to us right now. But here's the thing about tithing. A lot of people say, oh, tithing, that's old testament, that's old covenant. But here's the thing about that is that things that are old covenant that go away in the New Testament, they typically started at Mount Sinai. For example, you don't find people observing the Sabbath before Mount Sinai, do you? Now obviously at the beginning you have God creating the world in six days, and He blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, but show me one verse of scripture where we have people like Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob observing the Sabbath. You don't see that, do you? So you don't see the Sabbath, because that's something that was short-lived. The Sabbath is something that was instituted at Mount Sinai, and guess what? It's not part of the New Testament practice, okay? We do not observe the Sabbath. The Bible tells us you can either one man can esteem one day above another, another man can esteem every day alike in the New Testament. The Bible says, let no man trouble you concerning meats, drinks, divers washes, and He says the holy days, the Sabbath days, the carnal ordinances are a shadow of things to come. Those things are done away in Christ. We do not observe the Sabbath, okay? Also the dietary laws. The dietary laws did not exist before Mount Sinai. Clearly when Noah gets off the ark, he is told every living thing that breatheth shall be meat for you. I mean, that's a pretty clear statement. He tells Noah, look, as the green herb, I've given you all things. Any animal that's breathing is meat for you. So he's telling him, look, you can eat anything. Now is that what he tells Moses on Mount Sinai? No, because on Mount Sinai they have a strict dietary law system where they can only eat that which parts the hoof and chews the cud, and so they can't eat pork. Look, Noah could eat bacon, and it would have been just fine for him, okay? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob could have eaten those things, okay? But it's with Moses that all of a sudden it gets strict. So here's what's interesting. If you stop and think about it, you know, here we are in 2020, right? And let's say that the world was created in approximately, say, you know, 4300 BC, 4400 BC, which is about what it is. I don't agree with Usher's chronology. I think that it's slightly older than what he calculated. That's a whole other sermon. So basically, you know, let's say you have about, you know, 4,400 years before Christ, about 2,000 years now. So you have about 6,400 years of human history, right, that we've experienced so far. The earth is approximately 6,400 years old, somewhere thereabouts. Well, if you stop and think about it, how long was the Old Covenant there for? How long was the Old Testament in force? If it started at Sinai and it ended in the first century, we're talking about 1600 years, okay? And that's why you often hear people say that the Bible was written over the course of 1600 years. Have you ever heard that statistic? They'll say, like, 40 authors written over the course of 1600 years, three languages, you know, when they're giving stats on the Bible. So if you stop and think about it, 6,400 years of human history approximately, 1600 of that was Old Covenant, starting with Moses, starting to write the Bible with the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, all the way up until the New Testament being penned in the first century. That's where you get that number, 1600. But the Old Covenant, 1600 years, that's only, like, one-fourth of history. Does everybody understand that? Because you've got 6,400 years of history, 1600 of that was Old Testament. So that's kind of a smaller section of history. So that means for the majority of history, 75% of history, people have been able to eat whatever they want. And it's only one-quarter of history where just the nation of Israel was given those stipulations. So for 75% of human history, people aren't required to observe the Sabbath day, but just for that one period. Why? Because there are a lot of things, a lot of ceremonial things, a lot of things about the Mosaic law that started at Sinai and end with the institution of the New Covenant, okay? Tithing is not one of those things, and this is where people are wrong when they say that tithing is only an Old Testament practice. Here's the proof. Go, if you would, to Genesis chapter 14. So what you're not going to find is you're not going to find Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob observing kosher laws. You're not going to find them observing the Sabbath. You're not going to find them doing the stuff regarding the tabernacle, Levitical priesthood, all those things. But what you will find them doing is tithing, because like I said, this is a practice that actually transcends the Old Testament. It's something that has always been around, okay? Even if we went back even further, I'm going to start in Genesis 14 for the sake of time, but even if we went back even further, even just the very concept of man in the Garden of Eden, he's told, of all the trees of the Garden, thou mayest freely eat, except the one, basically, that's off limits, that belongs to the Lord, okay? And this is a similar concept of tithing, of basically like, okay, here you have all these things, but part of it is mine. Part of it is off limits. Then when you get into even the story of Cain and Abel, what does the Bible say that Abel brought? Abel brought the firstlings of the flock and the fat thereof. And again, firstlings and first fruits are another term that's used for tithing, okay, because it's the first 10%, the firstlings, the first fruits, etc. Look at Genesis 14, verse 8, and Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the Most High God, and he blessed him and said, blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand, and he gave him tithes of all. So here we have Abraham tithing to Melchizedek. So if tithing were an Old Testament practice just for the Levites, then why is it that Abraham's tithing to Melchizedek? Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. This is a foreshadowing of New Testament tithing, okay, because it's being tied to Melchizedek or Jesus Christ, okay? In Hebrews chapter 7, the chapter about Melchizedek, it basically says that there men that die receive tithes, the Levites, but here he receiveth them of whom it is witnessed that he liveth, okay? Jesus Christ receives the tithe in the New Testament, just as the Levites received it in the Old Testament. Now, look at Genesis chapter 28, Genesis chapter 28, verse 22. So what, and what is, tithing is basically 10% of your increase. So whatever you gain, whatever money you make, you give 10% of that unto the Lord. This is the practice throughout history, whether it's pre-law or post-law, okay? We see, like I said, Abel bringing the firstlings. We see Jacob giving the tenth unto the Lord at God's house, at Bethel, God's house, and then here we see, and we saw Abraham giving it to Melchizedek. Look at Genesis 28, verse 22. And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house, and of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee. So we have Abraham gives tithes to Melchizedek. We have Jacob at God's house saying, I will give the tenth unto thee. Then, of course, when we get into the Mosaic law, I'm not going to turn there for sake of time, in Leviticus 27, in Numbers 18, and in Deuteronomy chapter 14, we have the tithe going to the Levites, okay? Now, if you would, flip over in the New Testament to 1 Corinthians chapter 9. So we have the tithe going to the Levites under the Mosaic law. Now, stop and think about this. Israel is made up of twelve tribes, right? You have the twelve tribes of Israel. How's my volume doing? Bad? Is this all over the place or what? It's okay? A little bit of a roller coaster ride? Go higher? All right. So, it goes to the Levites in the Old Testament. There are twelve tribes. So if you stop and think about it, if you have eleven tribes supporting one tribe, all the other tribes, they inherited land. So they're going to be farming, they're going to have cattle, they're going to make their income from the land. They're going to work secular jobs, they're going to grow things, they're going to have herds, they're going to have flocks, they're going to raise crops. They're making money off the land, but God tells the Levites, you don't get any land. You don't inherit any land. He says, the Lord is your inheritance. You don't have an inheritance. The Lord is your inheritance. So the way this works is that the other eleven tribes support the Levite tribe financially. So it makes sense that if you have eleven tribes and everybody's giving ten percent, then that's going to produce like one income for the tribe of Levi. Does everybody see how that math works out? You know, and then you say, well, eleven to one is not ten to one. Well, he knows that some people are probably not going to pay their tithe, and so that's why you have to have a little extra there. So basically, the eleven tribes, they each give one tenth, and then that is like an income for one tribe. That's the idea behind the tithe going to the Levites in the Old Testament. And the Levites are doing what? You know, they're doing the service of the house of God. They're doing the work of the ministry, and they're supposed to be teaching, preaching, doing the service, doing the sacrifices, doing the rituals, all the work of the house of God. Now, look what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 3. This is the apostle Paul speaking in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 3. Mine answer to them that examine me is this. Have we not power to eat and to drink? He's saying like, is there something wrong with me eating and drinking as a preacher? Like, should I not eat and drink? Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas, or I only in Barnabas, have we not power to forbear working? What's he saying here? He's saying, look, all the other apostles and Cephas, which is Peter, and the Lord's brethren, James, Jude, Joses, and James, Judas, Joses, and help me, what's the fourth one? James, I'm drawing a blank. The fourth brother of Jesus, his half brothers, James, Judas, Joses, and nobody knows. Yeah, I got Jude, James, Jude, Joses, and then I, good night. I rattled that off in so many sermons. I'm losing my mind in my old age. But anyway, not important. You know how things just bother you though when you want to know. But anyway, he's saying, look, the brethren of the Lord, Peter, okay, all the other apostles, what is it? Simon. There we go. All right. See, it kind of seemed like they were going with the J names, like they were one of those families, because they got Jesus, they got Judas, they got James, they got Joses, and then Simon. So they weren't one of those families, all right. So anyhow, he's saying, look, Peter is married, Peter eats and drinks, and Peter doesn't work a secular job. He's saying they have forborn working. Now, remember, what was Peter's original secular job? Fisherman. Jesus specifically told him to stop being a fisherman, and he said, from henceforth, thou shalt catch men. I'm going to make you a fisher of men. And remember, James and John, Peter and Andrew, what did they do? When Jesus called them, they forsook the nets, they forsook the ship, they stopped fishing, and they went full time in the ministry with the Lord. Now, look, these goofball people out there that say that it's wrong for a preacher to be full time, they think it's wrong for a minister to be paid or to be full time. By the way, it's the Latter-day Saints teach that. Even though their prophet's living in some multimillion dollar mansion, and all the people at the top of their religion are filthy rich, their bottom rung preachers are all unpaid, okay. And their preaching is lame, and you get what you pay for. No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, the point is that, you know, the Mormons teach this, and you'll hear a lot of even goofball Baptists teach that it's wrong for a preacher to be paid. But you know what? This is such a ridiculous doctrine, because if you look at Christ's ministry for three and a half years, he's got Peter, James, John, and the rest of them, and guess what? None of them had a job. You know, it's not like they're fishing by day and preaching by night. They were full time. And in fact, in John chapter 21, when you see Peter go back to fishing, it's because he's backslidden. It's because he's wrong, and Jesus Christ shows up and corrects him, and gets him back to doing what he's supposed to be doing, which is full time ministry. He's not supposed to be fishing. Jesus was not moonlighting as a carpenter during his three and a half years of ministry. The Bible talks about people donating, and it talks about certain women who ministered unto him of their substance. People were giving, and remember Judas had the bag, and he counted the offerings all by himself and whatever. But the point is that these guys did not work a secular job. And Paul is bringing that out. He's saying, look, Cephas, which is Peter, James, Jude, all the rest of the apostles, they're all married. They don't work a job. You know, what's the difference here? Why is it that only I and Barnabas don't have the power to forbear working? He's saying that doesn't make sense. You expect us not to be paid, but yet every other apostle is being paid. That's what Paul is saying here. Does everybody see that? And then look down at verse number seven. Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? Who planted the vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof? Or who feedeth a flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Say I these things as a man, or sayeth not the law the same also, for it is written in the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Did God take care for oxen? Or sayeth that he had altogether for our sakes, for our sakes no doubt this is written, that he that ploweth should plow in hope, and that he that threshest in hope should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things? If others be partaker of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power, but suffer all things lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. And here's the part about the Levites. Do you not know that they which minister about the holy things live of the things of the temple? And they which wait at the altar are partakers of with the altar. Even so, what does even so mean? The same way, even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. So here's what Paul and Barnabas are saying. Paul and Barnabas have worked secular jobs on the side while doing missions and while doing preaching. And what was the job that Paul talks about doing or that the book of Acts making tents, right? So the apostle Paul made tents. That was something that he did on the side. Now here's a misconception though. If you actually study a little deeper in the book of Acts and read all the epistles, you know you're going to find out is that Paul did not always make tents and Paul did not always work a secular job. On some of his missions trips and in some places he didn't work at all. He basically was just receiving offerings and he talked about the Philippian church giving offerings to him and supplying his need and there are many scriptures we could turn to where we see the apostle Paul receiving offerings and living off of the payment for doing missions and preaching and so forth. But if you remember in 1 Thessalonians, he talks about the, or 2 Thessalonians, he talks about the fact, he talked about it both actually, that he specifically made a point to work a secular job amongst the Thessalonians because they had a problem with laziness and they had a problem with people in the church refusing to work. And he said that he didn't do it because he didn't have the power to forbear working because he's saying here look we have the power to forbear working that's what all these other preachers are doing. He specifically says in Thessalonians not because we have not power but to make ourselves an ensemble unto you to follow us for even when we were with you this we commanded you that if any would not work neither should he eat. So what he did amongst the Thessalonians was that he made a point to work a secular job to basically show them hey let me show you guys how to go to work every day and not be lazy. And so he said he ended up working day and night because he's working a secular job and preaching and so forth. So sometimes Paul did that and sometimes he didn't. And with the Corinthians he didn't take any money from them okay and he's bringing that up to them but what else do we know about Paul and Barnabas besides the fact that they're the only apostles doing it this way is that number one they're not pastors they're not even qualified to be pastors because they're single. And one of the qualifications for being a bishop or an elder or pastor is that you're to be the husband of one wife and that you're to have faithful children. Well guess what the apostle Paul is never called a bishop or an elder in scripture or a pastor but guess who is called an elder in scripture and a bishop we we see Peter and John called that in their epistles. Why? Because they were actually married and had children and they did not work a secular job. Okay so the bottom line is this it's okay for a preacher to work a secular job if a pastor preaches and has a secular job that's okay there's nothing wrong with doing that that's you know Paul and Barnabas are showing yeah that's an option but what is God's actual will what's actually God's plan or his perfect will it says in verse 14 even so had the Lord ordained so what did the Lord institute or ordain that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel not live of a secular job not live as a carpenter or a fisherman but dedicate themselves fully to the ministry and that's why in Acts chapter 7 when they bring in the deacons they specifically say we don't want to leave the word of God to wait tables so we're going to hire these deacons to do the daily tasks the daily ministration we're going to give ourselves to the ministry of the word and to prayer we're going to dedicate ourselves wholly the mission they didn't say hey man I'm already working eight hours at my secular job I don't have time to wait these tables and and and so does God want me to go get a second job waiting tables somewhere in order to you know pay the bills or something no the point is that pastors are supposed to be paid and internet house church bozos in their mother's basement don't think so but you know what actually baptist churches that are actually doing works for God getting tons of people saved doing the missions and the preaching and everything you know what that's what they teach that's what the bible teaches now the Mormons teach it differently and internet bozos online with their coffee table house church teach it differently but that's not what the bible teaches okay nobody is expected in the new testament to just work a secular job and pastor a church okay because of the fact that they're not going to be able to give it a hundred percent that way you know there are a lot of things now here's the thing when I started this church I did have a secular job because when you turn when you're starting a church from scratch you know I think the offering on the first Sunday was like uh 20 bucks or something you know what I mean so obviously that doesn't even pay for the chairs and the song books and it doesn't it didn't even pay for the expenses of just starting church okay I started the church and I didn't get paid actually for the first I didn't get paid anything I think for the first like maybe four and a half years of pastoring I didn't take any pay I just worked a full-time job and you know what it was hard I mean it was hard working all those hours taking care of my family and pastoring the church and it was something that I could not have sustained for a lifetime because my family was suffering you know my my preaching was suffering the church is suffering I wasn't able to give it 100 like I could have if I didn't have that secular job okay so for the first four and a half years I did both full-time job overtime job then for for many years I did sort of a hybrid where I scaled back my job to only like 30 hours a week and I basically just did like a half and half where I'd work for the church and work for the job and then eventually starting in I want to say January of 2014 is when I actually went full-time with the church so for six for six years now I've been full-time pastoring so for eight years I worked a secular job and for six years now I've been pastoring full-time and I'm telling you there is a lot that I've done over the last six years that I wouldn't have been able to do if I was still working my secular job and you know my family would be suffering right now and I you know you just you go through phases in life like that and you know what all of us in life are going to go through phases I think where you have to kind of burn the candle at both ends especially when you're young sometimes and you're just getting started in life sometimes you do have to you know work in the daytime and go to school at night or you have to work in the daytime and work a night job or whatever so you know I went through that phase in life you know you you might go through that phase in life or maybe you have gone through who went through a phase like that where you just worked an incredible amount of hours and you know but here's the thing you don't really want to do that for your whole life though because that's not a good family life and that's not going to be necessarily the best thing for you physically spiritually whatever and you know those of you that have been in the military you probably went through seasons in the military where you had to work an incredible amount of hours right just these insane long days and stuff when you're deployed I mean you're working you're not working 40 hours a week when you're deployed are you I mean you're working yeah 12 hours a day and and maybe even 16 hour days and 18 hour days and whatever you're going to be working incredible amount of hours so whether you go to college or whether you go in the military or whether you're just working two jobs many of us have gone through that phase in our life where you worked an incredible amount of hours but to just demand that a pastor do that for the rest of his life something's going to suffer either his performance as a pastor is going to suffer or his family life's going to suffer or his secular job is going to suffer and he's not going to have the money that he needs it's not realistic and that's why God didn't ordain it that way and not only do I believe that pastors should be paid I believe that deacons should be paid I don't think it's scriptural to have a position of a deacon where the guy's not getting paid because the whole point of a deacon is that he's doing the daily administration of the church well if he's out working his secular job then how's he doing the daily administration of the church so I believe that pastors and deacons should be paid and you know at our church we have full-time staff we have right now at this time we have four full-time staff members at our church and you know what we all have plenty to do none of us is sitting around wondering what to do all day we all have tons of work to do and we're firing on four cylinders all right and we're getting a lot done that wouldn't be possible if we had to work a secular job so anyway so where does the money come from to fund the new testament church you know where does this money come from to have the pastors and the deacons be paid and to fund the operation of the church it comes from god's people tithing just as in the old testament the tithe was given to melchizedek tithe was given to the lord then when we get into the mosaic law which was just a brief period in history if you think about it 25 of human history it was given to the levites why because the levites are the ones doing the work in god's house and then when we get into the new testament the bible says even as under the law those that served at the altar lived of the altar and they lived of the offerings they lived of the sacrifices they lived of the tides he's saying even so they that preach the gospel should live of the gospel so paul is the exception not the rule paul being single is the exception not the rule you know 90 some percent of god's people are going to get married aren't they the vast majority of people it's god's will that they get married it's it's rare that god calls someone to a single life now there are people that are called to a single life and god bless them and and they can do great things for god as a single but you know for most people that's not our calling and the bible says not everybody has that gift you know most people are going to need to be married okay and so paul's the exception not the rule he's not a pastor not a bishop not an elder not married and not like the other 70 apostles that are doing it differently right at least 70 possibly even 82 apostles right more like it and so basically paul and barbas are the exception here showing that yeah you can do it that way but it's ideal if the pastor's paid now look many of our pastor friends unfortunately they have to work a full-time job in fact most of my pastor friends work a full-time job and they pastor but you know god willing hopefully their churches will eventually grow to the point because many of them pastor small churches and so obviously the money is just not there hopefully the their churches can grow to a point where they can at least get part-time and like i did for a long time you know 50 50 and then eventually get to the point where they're fully supported and then they're going to be able to do more for god and be able to be more effective at that point and so forth so i think that's an important thing to cover because of the fact there's a lot of false teaching out there on the internet that that basically wants to demonize tithing and say that it's oh it's just a money-grubbing preacher and he's preaching for filthy liquor he's a hireling well you know what the bible says about pastors the laborer is worthy of his hire that's what it says about pastors the laborer is worthy of his what his what his hire so to sit there oh he's a hireling wrong the bible says he's a laborer that's worthy of his hire that's different than being a hireling okay and the thing is you know yeah are there preachers out there that are preaching for the money and doing it for the wrong reasons absolutely and especially when you see these pastors that are just being paid an incredible amount of money and you see these guys that are constantly fundraising constantly talking about money and then they're driving fancy cars they're living in fancy houses etc can this be abused absolutely it can be abused but you don't want to take the people that are abusing it and throw out the baby with the bathwater and then just say hey listen pastor you need to make bricks by day and gather straw by night you know you're putting uh you let my people go you know don't make the pastor be like a slave in egypt where he's got to work day and night you know i'm in this ministry for the long haul i've been here for 14 years i've been preaching for 20 years i've been pastoring for over 14 years i'm in it for the long haul i sleep at night i'm not i don't want to work all day and all night and die young you know i'm in it for the long haul and you know i live in a humble home uh i live a humble lifestyle okay i don't live in poverty but i certainly am not wealthy by anyone's standard i live in a house from the 1950s that's 1500 square feet with my 11 children all right so not exactly uh kenneth copeland here okay so you know you don't want to sit there and and demonize this and say oh money grub and peach and you know what else you'd have to admit if you've been at our church for any length of time you know what you know what you're gonna have to admit is that we rarely talk about money rarely first of all i rarely preach on tithing it's like once every year or two if that or something you know what i mean it's not it's not a subject that i harp on and and frankly the reason that i don't harp on it is because i don't think it's a major emphasis in the bible money i don't think the bible is just constantly you know when i read my new testament i don't see it just harping on money and harping on tithing and i don't see the old testament harping on that so i don't just go on and on about it and you know what i can say is that for the last 14 years we have never had a fundraiser ever we've never one time never have i stood up in this church and said hey everybody let's raise money for something that has never happened we've never had a thermometer up here and said hey we gotta raise we've never had a building fund i've never gotten up and said hey we're a little short on the budget this month we need to raise some funds that has never happened in the last 14 years all i have done is preach occasional sermons on tithing and giving and just the money is just always there that we need and you know what we give everything away for free we don't sell anything all the bibles are free the cds are free the dvds are free the church activities are free we've never had a fundraiser and look other churches that we're friends with yeah they have fundraisers they have this fund and that fund i'm not against them i'm not trash talking them because you know what just because we do things a certain way doesn't mean it's the only right way to do it but i'm just telling you that we as a church have never had a fundraiser and you know what we've never run out of money since 2005 until now we've never had any debt you know there are churches that are tens of thousands of dollars into debt hundreds of thousands of dead millions we have never had debt our church does not have a church credit card we have church debit cards and they're always trying to sign us up for a church credit card we don't use them because i just want to operate in the black so our church has never borrowed money never used a credit card never gotten to the point where we can't pay our bills we've always been able to pay our bills we've always had plenty of money we offer everything for free which rarely would any church just offer everything for free and we never talk about money and have fundraisers so why is that you know i i think what it shows is that god is blessing a church that's not obsessing over money you know what i mean because it's like it seems like money is like a cat you must ignore it and then it will come to you right i think if god sees you chasing after money and you're just you just really want money and you love money and you desire money you know what i think god's not going to give you money because you're the wrong kind of person to give money to because you're greedy or you just you don't have your mind on things above set your affection on things above not on things of the earth so i think god looks at our church basically having an ambivalent view toward money and not being obsessed with money not talking about all the time and worrying about it and obsessing over it and he and i think he just sees us being generous and we give to other churches we give generously to our people as far as materials resources we pay for everything and we don't we're not stingy we're not begging for money we're not and you know what because of that emphasis on soul winning and preaching and missions i believe that that's why god has caused our church to never have financial problems even when the when they whether the economy is good or bad our church has always done well financially you know and here's the thing i've heard a lot of preachers get up and say hey tithing is not enough i've heard them get up and say if you're not giving at least 11 you're not right with god because you gotta go above the tithe you gotta go beyond the tithe and they have the faith promise missions and and a lot of churches man they're pushing you to give 15 20 and everything i got you know what i i have stood by this all i believe that if you give the tithe you've given everything that's required of you and anything that you give beyond the tithe is just a free will offering right anything you give beyond the tithe is just of your own free will because you love the lord or you love our church love our ministry and you're just giving that over and above but you know that's never been required and it's and and you know this church is never going to be a heavy-handed church about money as long as i'm the pastor i don't you know i i don't think that um money is primary on god's agenda because you know the streets in heaven are paved with gold and you know isn't it funny in his ministry the guy he put in charge of the money is the most squirrely guy he knew from the beginning judas was bad so if jesus was really obsessed with money and jesus was really worried about money and money was his big thing don't you think he would have put like john in charge of the money john would have been honest with it right you know he puts fanon i mean excuse me he puts judas he puts judas in charge of the money because of the fact that it wasn't the it wasn't the most important thing to him so he put the money in the charge of the guy that was the traitor the guy that was the devil right why because it wasn't the big thing and here's the thing in your personal life don't get obsessed with money do not go down that road that is a dangerous place to be when you're when you just are loving money and you're constantly checking your banking and you're and look and keep track of it for crying out loud don't bounce checks or anything but i'm saying don't make your life about money because it is the root of all evil when you just start loving money and obsessing over money don't don't get too into that you know and you're not reading your bible you're reading books by robert kiyosaki and donald trump and and other you know financial gurus be careful going down that road that's that's not the road that you want to go down you you want to seek first the kingdom of god his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you and not get too into money right because because money is not going to make you happy right money is just temporary it's it's just something that we obviously we need money we got to go to work but it's it's not really what our lives are about it's not what our church is about you know if if our offerings just cut in half you know what it wouldn't break my heart we would just we would make the adjustments necessary and we would just go for and and and i think it's a red flag when you hear a preacher that's just constantly talking about money because why out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh he's got his mind on his money and his money on his mind that's why he's preaching the way that he does all right so anyway in your personal life don't don't go down that road you know as a church we don't want to go down that road where everything just becomes about money money money all right make your life about something that matters the things of god right be spiritually minded not currently minded and into money what spires never word of prayer father we thank you so much for your word lord and and these principles that we could learn lord where you know you demanded the children of israel to give some money you demanded them to give that half shekel and everybody had to pay it and you also later taught them about tithing and that was something that they were required to do lord and we just pray that you would just help us to have our heart in the right place about money not to not to lust after money and covet all the riches and fancy things and and lord help us to just be content with what we have and to work hard provide for our families but not to be money driven and lord help our church never to be money oriented but to always be generous as a church and to keep the main thing the main thing and in jesus name we pray amen